Reflections and Challenges: Community Psychology in the European Context
Wednesday 18th October to Friday 20th October 2017 at CastleGate, Newcastle
The European Community Psychology Association (ECPA) brings together researchers, academics, community activists, as well as national and international networks and associations involved in community psychology. ECPA’s interests are deeply concerned with social change in our globalized world proposing a multi-level approach to social and psychological knowledge and interventions, focusing on the interactions among people in context.
European Community Psychologists have made significant contributions to the development of Community Psychology (CP) with stronger theoretical underpinning; have developed innovative theory driven intervention strategies to promote multilevel empowerment; and achieved a high level of networking creating in 1996 the ENCP and then the European Community Psychology Association. The ECPA recently became a member of the EFPA (European Federation of Psychologists’ Association) to strengthen our relationship with other European Associations.
The overall theme is Reflections and Challenges: Community Psychology in the European Context, and within this, there are four themes:
Community Psychology interventions in Europe – celebrate the diversity and reflect on interventions
What contribution does European Community Psychology make to issues like – inequality, migration, violence and censure?
Protection of the “most vulnerable” – children, young people growing up in “austerity”, older people, migrants, etc.
Poverty & Inequality – Feminist responses to “austerity” and neo-liberalism, critiques and interventions
“The Community in Motion: Building Diverse Spaces, Social Cohesion and Change”
Santiago de Chile, October 2018
Now in its seventh summit, The International Conference on Community Psychology (ICCP) will be 14 years old. In previous ICCPs, the conferences have traveled across several continents, including: North, Central and South America, Africa and Europe, affording diverse interactions and dialogues between participants from around 50 countries.
From its origins, ICCP has proposed to promote the exchange of ideas and agendas in order to: reaffirm the value of our discipline and to chart the course of its future contributions (ICCP in Puerto Rico, 2006); consolidate transnational and transdisciplinary research, as well as networking within and across the diversity of perspectives in community psychology on a global scale (ICCP in Lisbon, 2008); exchange information and knowledge of difficulties and advances in the theory, practice, research and ethics of community action (ICCP in Puebla 2010); discuss and reflect on the possibilities and conditions of empowerment and community empowerment in the face of the psychological and social implications of crisis and social exclusion in different national and local realities (Barcelona, 2012); analyze community psychology in the world today, with its practical challenges and limits, reflecting on the paths taken by Community Psychology in recent years (ICCP in Fortaleza, 2014); and most recently, to criticize assumptions and overarching influences that underlie the dominant knowledge of community psychology, which is considered to be formed by imperialism, colonization, neocolonization, globalization, ethnocentrism and racism (ICCP in Durban, 2016).
In the 7th ICCP now to occur in Chile in 2018, we aim to expand this trajectory of discussions and learning by promoting the exchange of ideas and debate on participation and organizational power of current communities in the generation of spaces for coexistence, solidarity and integration that promote respect for diversity, transformations and change, as much in regards to structural change as in social dynamics and contents.
This 7th ICCP is being organized by the Chilean Society of Community Psychology and a network of 16 Chilean universities, which is evidence of the wide development of the national community psychology throughout the past decade, standing out for the growing recognition of the field of work as well as in the areas of: university training (pre and postgraduate), research, training, intervention and community action.
Holding this conference in Chile fills us with enthusiasm, since it will allow us to both contribute to the development of the discipline and to take a step further in the significant process that is the international conference of Community Psychology, as well as take a relevant step in the formation of Chile.
The conference will be held the first week of October 2018 in Santiago. The headquarters will be the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Chile, an important public university in the country.
Santiago de Chile is the capital city of the country and has a significant network of international flights, centralized at the Arturo Merino Benítez Airport. Chile has reliable and accommodating hotels and services, guarantying a comfortable stay. The University of Chile is centrally located in the city, with easy access from public transport and from the diverse networks of services, touristic sites, and hotels.
Very soon, through our website and social networks, we will be providing you with more information on this 7th ICCP conference, including the most relevant dates and information for you to be able to begin planning your trip and stay.
The festival is a celebration of the work of psychologists as well as community organisations, which will showcase initiatives that support well-being and promote social justice and community cohesion. Some of the key features that will mark this creative event include workshops, participatory action research, films, debate, drama and music, as well as ‘The Ideas Wall’.
After London and Manchester, the Festival will be coming to Bristol on September 15 and 16 2017 at the prestigious Arnolfini Centre for Contemporary Arts. The theme of the festival is ‘Falling apart, pulling together: Collaboration in times of division’.
Festival contributions will be loosely organized around four streams:
